[Review] phonostage comparison

ok the musical fidelity x-lp has arrived.

this is the first one they did.

to summarise, MF did a few phonostages, from the x series, and I think these are absolute works of art, the build is beautiful, solid thick cases that look like a star trek shuttle craft, with a lovely think aluminium front panel

there was the x.lp mine,

xlp s, 2nd installment, said to be better, may get one to compare

xlp dual mono, not sure about this inside, perhaps 2x xlps

and finally apart from the kwphonostage, there is the xlps v3.

Well its not a patch on the dv, I have identified one of the things that divides phonostages, more later.

The mf is VERY euphonic, is sounds nice, soft laid back, easy to listen to.
it has a nn5534 stage with active riaa, ie a filter in the feedback loop of the opamp to tailor the response to the riaa curve, rather than doing it 'passively' between 2 opamp stages.
the best ones I have heard have been passive, active ones give that transistor sound, dryer, tighter.

But the slee is active and sounds nothing like the stereotype.

anyway, that does the mm bit, prior to that, a matched transistor stage bumps the gain upto mc level, adding x10 I think for lower voltage cartridges. lots of psu filtering inside, its a very well thought out design.

i am not convinced tho its better as touted than integrated amp phonostages, using MUCH the same circuit, caps and chips, but it is quiet in use. bass is soft.

now what tells these apart....its AMBIENCE and clarity, the dv, and more so the slee has it in spades, space around the notes and reverberation, its just not present in the cheaper ones even tho they are enjoyable.( and interestingly too, I have found this true of mm v mc cartridges, for some reason, I don't really like most mm's, shure and cart man may be different, but they seem a bit sat on and laid back wihtout the clarity and space/ambience of a good mc, so to summarise, get a cheap mm and an mf phonostage, you get a euphonic laid back dryish sound, but get a top end phonostage and mc, and the clarity/ambience/space comes in spades ,its a totally different listen)

substituing the ortofon t3000 £1500 silver wired transformer regains a lot of thwack and ambience that the mc mf stage can't come close to. then trying the mm stage of the slee is just about the best vinyl sound i have heard in terms of space, I just have to get my paws on slee's mc active amp, and compare that to the transformer method!! should be interesting, slee says peoples report its better than even the most expensive transformer step ups. I don't think many mm stages can come close to the slee, and can't wait for his mc stage.

other ones on my list are the mf kw phono, and the rotel michi, but I really think the slee will be the best. I have more transformers to try, but may not bother if the slee mc is better. I do like transformers, they are very complex and interesting, more than meets the eye, horridly complex to understand properly.

 

Aye, the MF XLPS is much the same - lovely build but sound is a bit poo. Very obviously and artificially smoothed over in the top, maybe to make cheap carts sound "deeper" and more ambient, but it don't work... I suppose some people might like it, but they're wrong.

Dunc

 

interesting, I see you have a gram amp, you should try the phono section on the atc, its meant to be a good un.

 

Oops, need to change my sig - I've replaced the ATC with an Audio Innovations L2, and lovely it is too. Besides, the ATC phono stage is like 350 quid or something - you could get an awfully nice standalone phono amp for that price, especially 2nd hand. But yeah, it would've been nice to try it... ne'ermind...

Dunc

 

Like LtCdrData,I've been trying phonostages as well,and have settleed on a lower budget than say the Groove etc(i.e. happy to go to £500 or thereabouts) so I've tried the Microgroove,MFXPLS3,Dino plus an old head amp and MC transformer I had from ages ago,and an old Meridian pre for comparison.

The Micro,as others have found as well,I thought to be very detailed and fast but just tiring to listen to in the long term,depsite a good long run-in period.
The MF was well made,easy to use,and generally OK,but just didnt do it for me,but the Dino has been fine so far,and as a relatively cheap stage,with the prospect of easy upgrades,made good sense,especially given the amount of time I spend actually being able to listen and enjoy.

 

hi, I like the dino+ great bass but a bit veiled in the top.

the best by far apart from the slee is the dv and these are £300 s/h, way superior to all else.

yes mf not very good with phonostages I think.

 

Yes,I'd agree it is a bit veiled at the top,but can be offset to an extent by altering the cartridge loading if necessary,although I would agree that it isnt an ideal method.

The Slee I liked the look of,but the price tag of the Elevator and Era was a bit much given the amount of listening involved....for me anyway,the Dino was a good compromise.

I just found the MF to be uninvolving and flat,albeit interesting in that virtually all of these units measure identically,and yet sound so different.